An Excited Nood With A Few Questions

Hey Everyone!

I'm new here and am very excited to meet you all. I've always been interested in LD's but haven't taken the idea seriously. But after stumbling upon this sight and reading all the stories and helping suggestions, I'm ready to start lucid dreaming. Now I've read the getting started threads and different types of LD's.

Since this will be my first attempt, I'm going to try to take it as seriously as possible. I've got my RC's established and I'm starting to practice ADA and specific moments of awareness and reality checking throughout my day. And I'm going to work on my recall by keeping a daily dream journal.

But there are still a few concerns I haven't had answered yet.

1. I've always considered myself to be one of those people who don't dream. And I understand that everybody dreams just not everyone remembers. But I'm definitely in the group who remember very little. Maybe once a month I'll recall someone being in a dream, but its more of a "I think I had a dream about you last night" kind of thing. Nothing specific or definite. So my concern is, what do I do if I can't remember on a regular basis? Won't it take forever if I only get the opportunity to exercise the technique once every month or so?

2. I smoke pot on a regular basis, have been for the past 6 years. It can be assumed that I am at least a little high at all times of the day. More so before bed when I'm winding down after my day, actually my general routine is to take a hit about 20 minutes before bed, pot has always helped me sleep. So my question is, does drug use (specifically marijuana) affect ones ability to LD?

3. I've always had an interest in lucid dreaming and have casually read up on techniques and what not. In the past I have even attempted the WILD technique (staying perfectly still and waiting for the dream to unfold around you). My attempts were unsuccessful because, while I'm consciously waiting for sleep paralysis, it doesn't come because I'm conscious. But if I don't consciously think about getting to that stage it happens without me noticing and my next thought is when I wake up the following morning. I'm not sure if that makes sense, its hard to explain. But it's my most frustrating concern. I've had ideas like some sort of meditation like mantra, or counting continuously. Any thoughts?

I'll be practicing my recall techniques for the next week or so and will begin my attempts come November. I will keep a progress thread of my experiences. Any suggestions or theories or ideas are greatly appreciated.

I'm pumped about this site and meeting each of you. And I'm very excited for the beginning of my life as a lucid dreamer.

Try not to stress yourself~

1) GET THAT THOUGHT OUT OF YOUR HEAD xD don't think that, have intent that you will remember your dreams, don't think you can't do it! try to set alarms in the middle of the night and wake up to see if you remember more dreams, autosuggestion and positivity are key

2) you smoking pot consistently is probably why you have low recall (especially since you do it before bed), marijuana is bad for that. Which low recall > bad for lucid dreaming.

3) try to focus on breaths or counting during a WILD attempt, clear your mind. Be aware of things, have an "anchor" like a ticking clock. And have intent to achieve your goal

anywho, welcome to DV, it's a great place to learn and you'll get a ton of useful info :) if you have any more questions, feel free to PM me or ask in here~

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1. I've always considered myself to be one of those people who don't dream. And I understand that everybody dreams just not everyone remembers. But I'm definitely in the group who remember very little. Maybe once a month I'll recall someone being in a dream, but its more of a "I think I had a dream about you last night" kind of thing. Nothing specific or definite. So my concern is, what do I do if I can't remember on a regular basis? Won't it take forever if I only get the opportunity to exercise the technique once every month or so?

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It's the same with everyone, the more you don't attempt to remember your dreams, the less you do, no matter what if you want to improve your recall lay there in the morning for five minutes just trying to remember anything, and if you don't, write down "I didn't remember anything.

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2. I smoke pot on a regular basis, have been for the past 6 years. It can be assumed that I am at least a little high at all times of the day. More so before bed when I'm winding down after my day, actually my general routine is to take a hit about 20 minutes before bed, pot has always helped me sleep. So my question is, does drug use (specifically marijuana) affect ones ability to LD?

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Yeah pot generally ruins peoples recall.

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3. I've always had an interest in lucid dreaming and have casually read up on techniques and what not. In the past I have even attempted the WILD technique (staying perfectly still and waiting for the dream to unfold around you). My attempts were unsuccessful because, while I'm consciously waiting for sleep paralysis, it doesn't come because I'm conscious. But if I don't consciously think about getting to that stage it happens without me noticing and my next thought is when I wake up the following morning. I'm not sure if that makes sense, its hard to explain. But it's my most frustrating concern. I've had ideas like some sort of meditation like mantra, or counting continuously. Any thoughts?

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You shouldn't be aiming to get into SP, more to catch yourself just before you slip into a dream, ever attempted a WILD and you thought it was half an hour, yet it turned out to be an hour? That's because we quite easily slip in and out of conciousness. So take a positive attitude and really tell yourself you will have a lucid dream. Try to fall asleep yet observe what is going on, it's a very difficult technique which most people struggle with, so don't beat yourself up if you can't do it. Read as much as you can, and good luck.

Happy 'Remembered' Dreams :zzz:

Thanks for the advice. About to finish work, so I'll get my first attempt at a true recall.

Another question. As i just mentioned I'm about to get off work. I work crazy hours at my job and frequently switch between morning, afternoon and midnight shifts, all within the same month. Because of this I'm often very tired while I'm awake, and I also sleep during the day for 1-2 work weeks every month. In your guyses personal experience, would these conditions promote LD's? or hinder them?

Loving the immediate, and helpful feedback. Thanks guys

1. You have to put something in your head: you dream just as much as the next person. People aren't just meant to remember dreams. It's not that you have poor recall, you just don't have a good one. Recall takes time.So, prepare to get many nights without recalling them. That's just normal trust me. What DOES NOT HELP is thinking "oh I just remember a bit, I won't write about it". Every detail helps due two reasons:

- Later in the night (or even in the day) that piece of information can trigger the rest of the dream memory
- Even if you hold to these fragments, your are signaling your brain to remember your dreams.

One thing you can repeat before going to bed (or before getting comfortable to sleep) is : when I wake up, I will remember my last dream. Say it like you mean it, say it out loud, make a song, whatever. This message if repeated day and day will eventually carry out as a unaccomplished task, thus your brain will make an effort of remembering it until it's complete. Another thing is obvious: do not move, do not get distracted. I'll give you an example: I wake up, my alarm can be still ringing, but I won't move. I try to remain calm and focused until it shuts up. When it does (around after 20 seconds or sometimes less than 5) I start remembering my last dream. If nothing pops in my head but a person or a individual event, I'll focus on that. Details eventually start coming. I do not move until 5 or 10 minutes have passed, because usually that means I can pull a very long dream in that time. If I still only remember a tiny fragment, I put it on my DJ, as detailed as possible (doesn't care if you only remember one person, describe her face, her body, how were you feeling). If you have to guess (for example, "I think I was in that mall I was last week") go for it. Don't rely 100% on your memory, if you think you dreamed with this, write it out and it might trigger the memory.

2. Oh yes, loads of reports here about that. I've read in a veteran lucid dreamer this on his DJ "Smoked pod. Killed recall this night". I'd suggest you find other ways to fall asleep, like meditation (it isn't much different from marijuana, it's all about the deep breaths that relax you did you know?). I'm not saying don't smoke it, but at some extent, smoking will harm you severely in recall.

3. WILD IS hard. Loads of good lucid dreamers still can't perform it, it requires loads and loads of concentration so don't expect to pull it off with 1 or 2 tries. What seems to work for many is to focus on deep breaths, and imagining yourself falling (or drowning in your mattress). you should perform WILD when you're awake enough to focus on something without letting it slip your mind, but sleepy enough to enter the state of numbness and grogginess without much problems. WILD also takes time, so if you're in that mood of "okay....I'm waiting for 20minutes why isn't this working?", it won't work. I'd suggest you give a little more practice on lucid dreaming before going WILD, there are many techniques that help you with that if you want to try it later ;)

For last, I would focus on one step at a time. I'll make you a list that worked very well for me:

- Before anything, I started a regular sleeping schedule. It turned out to help a lot, because I never have troubles waking up for WBTBs (sometimes wake up without alarm), I don't feel tired, and my brain now knows that specific time is lucid dream time (when I wake up for my 1st WBTB for example, I automatically start thinking on it ^^)
- I focused then on recall. Steady, regular recall. I worked on it until I was able to always remember something when I woke up during my WBTBs (I do 2 of them per night) and at least 1 long dream per night. This is important because you'll be able to notice your best dream signs and rely on them to become lucid, no matter what method you use.

After these two steps, I began the routine. In my opinion, routine is highly important for lucid dreaming. No matter what technique you choose, having a routine in which you spend a percentage of your day focusing/thinking on lucid dreaming, will make your brain catalog it as an important subject for you. Pretty much like you brush your teeth without having to remember it. This is in the long run, one of the most responsible actions you can take to induce lucid dreams. If you spend 2 months thinking about bananas every day, it's only natural bananas will be showing up in your dreams in a regular frequency. That's why the more time you practice, no matter how successful you are, the more easily you can induce them. Don't think it's like mastering something and then you're good to go. It's like exercise: you master a movement, but you still have to keep yourself in a sharp shape in order to be good at it.

About work shifts, I'm in the same situation as you. It only harms lucid dreaming if you think it does. Imo it actually helps. Just make sure you are regular sleeper. For example I sleep from 1,30 am to 10am. If I leave work and go to bed at 3am one day, I still only sleep till 10am. This way I'll be in REM rebound and decrease the time to enter in REM sleep (meaning you got bigger chances of lucid dreaming because you'll be entering in dreams faster).

Extremely helpful, zoth! I'm going to look into different sleep aids like meditation or focused breathing. And I now understand what you're talking about; writing down any little info you can in my DJ.

Can't wait to get to sleep today!

Yea weed messes with memory integration in a way that can be detrimental to dream recall. Oddly enough, I found the nicotine patch to dramatically increase my ability to remember dreams. I would remember sometimes 3 or more dreams a night. I don't recommend the patch though unless you are trying to quit smoking.